catching up and co-sleeping

hey look- thomas loves his new soccer ball... shout out to his auntie jenny :) if you put it on his legs, he brings his legs up so he can reach the ball with his hands. so cute. oh hmmm, he looks kind of girly in this picture...maybe it's the hair parted to the side...

this is the longest i have gone without posting since thomas was born, over 10 days. even now he is starting to fuss. sheesh... am i spoiling him? do i hold him too much? why does it seem like he is so demanding of my attention these days... well i guess that is normal. maybe i should have been typing while i was eating lunch. but then typing with one hand is really slow. or you end up taking an hour to eat because you are just taking bites between typing.

we got one of those foam ABC mats for the floor in the kitchen. they have a bunch at the Ross store in Dublin for only $12. as you can see thomas and scsi helped William put it to gether. Thomas is much more aware of Scsi now. He will follow scsi around with his eyes and even try to talk to scsi. William's mom was laughing last Thursday because at one point, Thomas was looking right at scsi and making these cute little noises and she said "oh look, he's talking to cat!" now i may be imagining things but it even sounded like thomas was making meowing sounding coos. :)

Last Saturday, we got together with several of our old college friends. we don't see them very often because they live all over the bay area (peninsula, south bay, one in fresno). out of 6 couples, 3 of us have kids now. i am sure in another few years almost all of them will have kids. renee and allan in fresno have 2 kids and the older one, Kaitlyn is very very precocious. we discovered that she loves being the center of attention and can keep talking all by herself in needed. it was so sooo funny watching her talk to william and vijay outside on the patio, they were both buzzed and could barely keep up with her. heh heh...

ok i said i would not co-sleep. right from the beginning, i remember thinking, i am not going to get stuck with a kid that always wants to sleep in our bed because he is used to it. then we had that heat wave in June and william doesn't want to run the a/c all the time. definitely makes sense at night because i don't want a cold draft running down on all of us as se sleep. so rather than sleeping in his crib, thomas slept with daddy downstairs in the guest room where it is nice and cool. we found he slept longer when he slept in the big bed with daddy... until almost 7am every morning. then he would bring thomas up to the master bedroom and put him in bed with me. at first i resisted. plus i couldn't find a comfortable way to feed him with both of us lying down. it just felt like i had to keep my legs and neck tensed to keep us both together while he was feeding. very uncomfortable to try to maintain that tension for the 10 or so minutes he needs to fill up. however, i noticed that for some reason, when he eats in bed, he goes right back to sleep - practically passes out! that is not fair. when i feed him in the den, sitting up with the pillow, sometimes he goes back to sleep, but 60-70% of the time, he stays awake for about an hour. when we co-slept, 3 days in a row, thomas just filled himself up and passed out. and even when he wakes up around 8am for another feeding, he still goes back to sleep. amazing!
so that is why people co-sleep. after 3 or 4 mornings of experimenting with different positions, i finally found a way to make it work so that we are both reasonably comfortable. not only that, i discovered that thomas sleeps longer into the morning when we co-sleep. if he falls asleep at 9:30pm, he wakes up the following morning at 9am. sometimes even 9:30. how do they know?? how do they know that they are sleeping between mommy and daddy? can it be smell?? but it is not like their noses are any more sensitive than ours. maybe the warmth of our nearby bodies?? who knows... all i know is that i have succumbed and now sleep in with thomas almost every morning until 9, sometimes 10am. we are lazy little piggies together!

on days when william has class, i make him sleep downstairs so he can get a full night's sleep. it also helps put him in a better mood so that he is not cranky from lack of sleep. on those nights, i put a pillow on william's side so that he can't roll all the way off the bed. luckily he is not strong enough to roll over or under the pillow. instead, he rolls and ends up hugging the pillow, and sometimes sucking on the pillowcase. can he breath ok? don't they warn us not to allow babies to sleep with loose clothing and blankets for safety reasons? i can't remember. well, i managed to get a pic of him hugging william's pillow without him waking up. funny little baby...


~~~ Thomas is official! ~~~

Finally got his authorized birth certificate yesterday. has any one been to Martinez? the contra costa county registrar's office is up there, in this tiny placein the middle of nowhere. i had no idea martinez was such a small city. i mean there are all these refineries, and you pass those, and then you are suddenly in this town with four main roads and it just feels like you're in yontsville. it was like a mini getaway with Grace (her son is 15 months and she hadn't gotten the BC yet. so i got to hitch a ride with her. both boys fell asleep on the way there and it was after lunch on the way back so they both fell asleep again. perfect:). martinez has lots of historic buildings with warnings posted at the entrance saying that the building is unreinforced masonery and could be unsafe in an earthquake. ha ha...

5 1/2 months with Mr Frog

look how rosy his cheeks are :) isn't it funny how they love touching their toes? i can't wait until he realizes he can stuff them in his mouth!

--------------first time things---------------

he did two things for the first time today. he rolled over all by himself, finally! and he did it three times, as if to say, "it's not a fluke. i really can finally roll over." for a while, we feared his big ole head was impeding his progress in this area. the second thing was he discovered his balls. or i should say ball, because the left one unfortunately has not come down yet (something they call an undescended testicle). anyways, william and i were changing his diaper together this afternoon when out of the blue, he just reached down and grabbed with enthusiasm, while vigorously sucking on his lower lip. this of course sent both of us into beals of laughter. he did it again during his bath. *sigh* diaper changes are never going to be easy again... :)

cupcakes and father's day

this was a great weekend! we got saturday all to ourselves - it was so nice not to have to rush anywhere, do anything or have anything planned. we finally got a dresser and some shelves for thomas' room. it is starting to look like a real room and we have to admit, it is foolishly and completely satisfying to walk in there. somehow it is so very satisfying to see this little room we have put together for thomas. now, we both get why parents spend time/money making their baby rooms so cute - it is nice! :)

as you can see we also got a chance to take more photos of thomas (some on sat and some on sunday morning). finally got him smiling! it was william's suggestion to take the photos first thing in the morning. babies are definitely fresher in the morning (as one of our other new mom/friend, Liz says). the only thing that sucks about taking your own pics is that it is really hard to get perfectly clear shots - babies move around so much. can see why have a $1000+ camera that can take rapid action shots in succession would be a real benefit.

here he is sitting on his own! look at that funny little look in his face. in the next shot he got a little help from dad - so happy getting a little sitting assistance.

on sunday, mom helped thomas write a card for dad and even colored in a cartoon picture for him (from his precious moments coloring book). we had french toast for breakfast (with cream cheese and nutella in the middle). yummy!!!

we went to dinner with two other new dads: vijay ®ina and john & liz. unfortunately ethan was on a father's day break because his mommy did not get anything for mother's day. perhaps next year, ethan will help dad "remember" to help him with a card for mom! :p

i went to IKEA for the furniture on Tuesday last week. while we were there, we passed a trendy little bakery on Bay Street called Teacake Bake Shop. there were selling these ridiculously adorable cupcakes for $3 each. sheesh! ever since eyeing those cupcakes in the window, i have been craving cupcakes. so i made a batch of cupcakes using a recipe out of America's test kitchen. it was for white birthday cake but it worked out great for cupcakes. here is my version below - they tasted yummy too. after dinner, regina/vijay/sara and liz/john/ethan came over and helped us eat them. we all had at least 2 each (i think i ate four over the course of the day....) and they took some home too. next time, i'll have to make a bigger batch!


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Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dear husband and even more wonderful dad! i would not be surviving this very well without you. it is funny but when you see your husband loving your child, it makes them even more wonderful. still can't believe we were so stubborn for 8+ years...

more on the art of breastfeeding

look - he is getting better and better at sitting! so cute :)

it has been 5 months now and i finally feel like it is natural when i am feeding thomas. crazy! i am not sure exactly when it happened.. somewhere around 4 months i think. it was actually uncomfortable for me for the first 6-7 weeks (esp when he would first latch on). after that, it was just awkward. not to mention leaking and feeling like they were going to explode if i didn't feed thomas or pump every 3-4 hours. somewhere around 3 to 4 months, i learned how to feed thomas without the pillow and without my sofa at home with all of my cushions set up perfectly so. i have always wanted to, ever since i witnessed queen naomi as she effortlessly fed Dylan while walking around. :)
breastfeeding really is an art.... or a skill that you have to learn and then perfect - just like driving. i always thought it would be more natural, but it really isn't. on top of that babies have to learn too. most of them pick it up pretty fast, but they have to perfect it as well. the first month or two, they are just sucking at anything and then choking when the milk starts coming too fast. by the time they are 3 months old they get really good and can actually suck the milk out more efficiently than the pump. every single book and website i have looked at says that and the older thomas gets the more inclined i am to believe it. another thing that happened is that around 3-4 months, my body adjusted to Thomas and stopped overproducing milk. they say many women produce too much milk for baby the first 12 weeks or so. as your body adapts, it starts to ease off and produce exactly how much they need based on how often they feed. it is really really amazing. i actually was a little distressed when that happened to me because i thought i was not producing enough. even thomas was a little fussy because the milk would not flood out the way it did the first few months. so that made me feel like i really wasn't producing enough. they say this is common and that many women mistakenly stop breastfeeding or start adding formula when this happens, thinking that they should wean their baby off. so my doctor's advice was to go by diapers. as long as thomas was wetting at least 6-8 diapers a day, he is getting enough to eat. easy enough. when i was overproducing, he would finish each feeding in 5 minutes tops. he was a fast sucker. ha ha... once i leveled off, he would try the same speed guzzling method but wasn't getting as much. it really worried me. luckily, Thomas adjusted too and now takes 5-10 minutes to drink. he also takes both sides in one meal. he used to only need one at a time. the best thing about all this is that i no longer leak at random times because my boobs don't get ridiculously full of milk anymore... to the point where they are painfully full. yay...

however, now that he is his little very aware self, he is SUPER distractible. i can't even read anymore when he is drinking because he hears the crinkle of book or magazine pages and his little head swings off towards the source of interest. then he reaches out to try to grab the pages and help me read. this is especially hilarious and irritating when he does this right as the milk starts coming out. then i have like 5 of these leeeittle geysers of milk spraying on the pillow, on his head, his face, the sofa and me. if he hears anyone else talking besides me (i.e. DAD) he swings off to check it out. if he hears something outside, like a car horn or siren, he pulls off to check it out. he is so funny, so irritating and so funny. sometimes when i feel him start to pull off, i try to lock his head in place with my hands. but that darn little neck is getting really strong and even if i am squishing his adorable little ears, cheeks and nose, he STILL makes every effort to turn towards the interesting sound. man!!! little shyster!

the downside is i went from a C (esp those first 2 months, they were like coconuts!) to a B back to an A. ah well, it was short-lived, but at least i got to be a bustier girl for a few months. :p

another funny thing is he has a little better control of his limbs now so he utilizes them while he is drinking. sometimes his hand (on the arm under his body) reaches up to tickle my armpit. his toes are usually kicking at either my side or my armpit. it is especially tickly when his toes hit my armpit. his free arm is usually wildly roaming about, exploring my chin/mouth or my shirt. he also likes to slam his hand into my chest. repeatedly. ha ha.... not so funny when his nails are too long.
in the last month, he has gotten especially good at what i like to call digging for gold. he crams his hand right down into my bra, and starts grabbing at whatever he can find down there. sometimes the bra strap, other times my boob, many times the little, round nursing pads i have in there to prevent leaks. the funny thing is he will grab it, pull it right out and swing it around (all this while drinking). even funnier is that it has a sticky strip on the back. so sometimes when he tries to let go so that he can go digging around for something else to grab, it sticks to his hand. so there is thomas drinking away, little pad stuck to his hand as it is waving around... :)

--------falling asleep in the car-----------

thomas looks so sad when he is falling asleep. those little eyes looking at you, just makes me want to scoop him up and hug him! william chronicled it as we were driving home one day. he gives you this really sad little face and then the eyes start to roll back. of course he is still drooling the entire time. the only time he stops drooling is when he is asleep. thank goodness or the entire bed would be drooly by morning!

the last three weeks

the weeks since we went to Audrey & Alan's wedding have been busy. we have had weekly visits from william's parents, my dad came for lunch and we finally visited my mom for her birthday (which was june 4th). there was a memorial day bbq with john, liz & ethan, and a northern california reception dinner for Audrey & Alan. every weekend has been busy! how can this be... we were busy before baby, and now that baby is a little older, we are busy yet again. *sigh*
here is a nice picture of Thomas hamming it up for William's mom. both all smiles! william actually looks a lot like his mom. his sisters as well. his dad looks like action star chow yun fat from the side. too bad william doesn't look like chow yun fat :p heh heh... just kidding :)

on a side note, the nocal wedding reception for Audrey & Alan was very nice affair - Thomas's second formal event! :) We got to see a lot of the families from Tri-Valley Bible Church that we have not seen since we left to start Faithwalk in 2002. It was esp nice to see Linda & Walter and the parents of many of the kids we first met when they were just starting high school. time really flies because many of these "kids" are now working adults.

here's a shout-out to Jeanette and Sherry - thanks so much for calling and thinking about us! we're looking forward to seeing you in July!


-------------- SPOILING BABY ------------------
hey colors! all these formatting options - i was completely blind to the format bar right there! for some reason i thought you had to do things in html to get formatting. anyways, for some reason it has been really hard to get any time on the computer in the last 2 weeks. just checking email has been a struggle, much less finding time to post. am i spoiling him?? maybe i hold him too much.... who knows! i think i have to be better about putting him down in his crib or swing so he learns to entertain himself. i am still getting thank you cards done one by one, here and there. so painful. i can't believe i have been so neglectful of getting those done.

random pictures... brain farts...

william likes to post these random collections of pics up just so that he can admire them when he is at work. how silly!

anyways, it is so funny how different thomas looks depending on the expression on his face. sometimes he looks like me, most of the times like william. but occasionally he looks like my dad or william's dad. william's mom always thinks he looks like my dad and frets that thomas looks like a "korean baby". (by the way, i have no idea why the fact that he looks korean is something to fret about... he is half korean). on the flip side, my mom claims that thomas looks just like william's dad. you just can't win! it is just the two grandmothers, seeing the other side of the family "oh he looks like the other side of the family" because both grandmothers like to worry and fret "glass is half empty" type of mentality. nothing i can do about that... *shrug* :)

Thomas is now 5 months old. he weighs about 17 lbs and is a little over 26" long. we have discovered it is true that babies have different cries for when they are hungry, or tired or just want your attention. i used to think that was a load of bologna, but after about 3-4 months with thomas, william and i realized that he did have different meanings for his sounds. we also think that thomas is a pretty mellow baby. he loves music (many babies do) but he seems particularly fascinated when william sits and plays the guitar. even when thomas is getting hungry, he will stop fussing to listen and watch william play. so as you can see in the pic, we are trying to introduce a little piano too. although by the look on thomas face, i have a ways to go before he starts to enjoy it. ha ha... i REALLY want him to play classical music first. he can play whatever he wants later, but i believe if he doesn't have a firm grasp of theory and technical skill first, he'll always lack later, regardless of what type of music he plays.

here is a perfect girly picture of thomas. i was getting tired of people asking if he is a boy or a girl. so last Monday, i finally cut Thomas' hair. his first haircut on June 5th! he no longer has those girly little extensions behind his ears on both sides. i didn't save any of his hair, but i wish i took a picture. i cut it while he was sleeping on my lap. it is kind of scary having scissors so close to his head.